See that smile?

It turns into a giggle.

And then becomes joyful laughter.

It's because of him:

and her:

Grandpa and Grandma.  Kate loves them dearly and misses them when they're not here, which is most of the time.  They live far away, a 6 hour drive at least.  The past few years they've snow-birded south, even farther.  They're hoping to move there, which is going to make seeing them a bit harder, an 18/19 hour drive. Opa is even farther away, a plain ride accross the ocean. 

I have such fond memories of my grandma who lived so close, and who was such an important part of my daily life.  She sang songs with us, knitted sweaters, babysat.  We'd visit her whenever we wanted, she lived in walking distance.  Kate won't experience that, her grandparents, all three remaining, live far away.  I can't move to the Netherlands with her, and we can't move down south. 

<sigh>

Wilma

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We've visited Big Run Wolf Ranch several times.

Kate loves going to the Wolf Ranch for many reasons:

1. To get there, you take a shuttle bus.  It's a big yellow school bus.
   This time she asked if she could sing "The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round".
2. There are pony rides.
3. There are many animals.
4. You get a stamp on your hand and it's a wolf foot print.
5. There is a gift store.
6. You can get your face painted.

This past Saturday was extra special. Jim Nesci was going to be there with his Cold Blooded Creatures.  Kate knows Jim and his creatures quite well. They were the special attraction at her fourth birthday party. (Her party was an event that warrants post blogging!)

This time we saw Big Al. Big Al is an Aldabara Tortoise who weighs over 250 lbs. A beautiful creature. He's heavy enough that he could crush things / people etc. when he steps on it. Mr. Nesci had to keep his attention on Big Al to make sure he didn't barge into the audience. Big Al doesn't listen and obey, unlike Bubba. Wolf Ranch owner John Basile went to his fridge to get Big Al some broccoli and carrots, which kept him in one place at least.

Bubba is an American Alligator. He is the second alligator with that name. The first Bubba was quite famous and made it on tv several times. This is Bubba "the story continues".

What striked me at the time, is that Jim Nesci was more concerned with Big Al the herbivore than Bubba the predator when both were out on the grass. Alligators are potentially very dangerous animals. He stresses this in the presentation. Bubba's girlfriend lives in the same pool with him. Her name is Cruella, and she'll never be able to be out in public like Bubba.  ubba listens very well. He actually listens better than my dogs.

When Jim Nesci arrived earlier, Kate was excited and kept calling his name. During the entire presentation, as he asked for volunteers and helpers, she raised her little hand and said "me me me". When she wasn't picked, she was sad, at times sad enough to cry. I explained to her that unlike her birthday party, this was for all the kids, and now it was someone else's turn to help. It was a sad thing, her face paint runny from crying.

Three children had a chance to ride on Bubba and there was time for one more. He talked to a mom with a little one. The mom was nervous about the whole thing. Then he moved on to where we were. He saw Kate and asked her to come up, he made her the happiest child on earth at that moment. Tears forgotten she strode up and straddled Bubba like a pro. It wasn't her first time after all. (I really need to write that birthday post!)

That smile on her face is pure joy. He told me later he did recognize her from her birthday party, and knew that she'd do well riding Bubba. He remembered the "dinosaur girl". I had told her earlier that he did a lot of parties, and met a lot of kids, and probably did not remember her. I was wrong. He did remember my dinosaur girl.

Wilma

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Daily I look into my daughter's eyes and get lost. They're just the most amazingly detailed brown eyes I've ever seen.

Today (after having been sick for almost 3 weeks) I picked up my camera when the kids played outside in the snow. When I saw this one on the LCD I was excited to check it out on the computer screen as well. It's my new favorite.

Wilma

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"Kate, look into the camera please." Results in a strange contortion of a pose usually. Funny.

Imagination is big in our house right now. Four year olds don't have a clear line of demarcation between real and unreal, so we've been working on understanding more of that. It's hard to figure out if stories about school really happened or if they were perhaps made up or slightly altered. Kate kept talking about a little boy named Christian who said all sorts of not very nice things to her. Christian, it turns out, hadn't been at the school for over 7 weeks!

Her brothers will tell her she is a liar when she tells them something they know not to be entirely true. Liar is such a negative word, and I've asked them not to use it anymore and explained to them that this is a stage in a child's development where she's still learning what is real for everyone and what is real for just her.

We don't call it lies. We call it imagination. She plays imagining quite a bit. While I'm typing this she asked me if she could imagine she's a mommy. Of course she can, imagining is always fine, and she doesn't have to ask me.

Kate has imaginary dogs, imaginary dinosaurs and she loves to imagine that all her toys are real.She re-enacts and imagines episodes from her favorite tv shows. It happens while she's watching and it happens after the fact, when she rearranges the stories to fit her own ideas. She uses any toy that she can find to match the personalities. Right now she's playing with Olivia and a random cat and dog. (Kate: "Mom, do you mind if we imagine this Olivia's house? You don't have to be a pig, no one has to be a pig, she just lives here.")

Gosh, I love this. In all my years of yearning to be a mom, I didn't know how cool it can be when your kid takes you on a journey in her imagination.

She watches more tv than I thought I'd let her before I became her mom! It serves to fuel her imagination though, that makes it less bad, right? (Note the tv reflection in her eyes in the photo below!)

Wilma

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It sort of has me down this year.

I used to like winters. The mild winters of the Netherlands with lots of rain didn't get me down. The short winters in Albuquerque were short enough to be fun and over before you knew it. Living in Illinois, where winter is mostly a dreary and messy affair has done me in.

I've been wanting to blog. Looking back I can't believe I didn't even blog Kate's birthday last year. It was a fabulous birthday (she's still talking about it) and it deserves a post. After all, this blog is partly supposed to be in lieu of albums and scrap books. A web album and posts of Facebook just won't cut it! There are lots of twitter updates regarding Kate, but those don't really count.

One post per week ... as a journal. That shouldn't be too much, should it? I have some photography projects in mind too, that need to get out of the mind and onto the sensor and the computer! To get me started I modified my blog design and added website pages to match.

Wilma

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